By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez’s trainer Eddy Reynoso made it clear last Saturday night that Gennadiy Golovkin and Jermall Charlo will need to “wait their turn” before they are getting a shot at the Mexican superstar at some point.
Canelo, 30, refused to entertain the idea of speaking about a fight between him and Golovkin. When asked if he’d be willing to fight Golovkin after he unifies, Canelo said he’s only focused on his goal of unifying.
During this week, in the build-up to his unification fight with Billy Joe Saunders, Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) had said he would be interested in fighting GGG and Jermall.
Reynoso sounded angry at the post-fight presser
But once the fight with Billy Joe was over, Canelo’s trainer Reynoso had a stern message for both Golovkin and Charlo, saying they need to need until the Caleb Plant fight is done.
“They have to wait their turn,” said Reynoso at the post-fight news conference last Saturday night when asked when Canelo would fight Golovkin or Jermall Charlo.
Reynoso sounded irritated and almost angry when asked about Canelo potentially facing Golovkin or Charlo. It’s unclear why those questions would upset Reynoso because those are fights that the U.S boxing fans would prefer to see over Plant fight or last Saturday’s match against Saunders.
“They can wait their turn. We beat [Callum] Smith; he was a champion. We also beat Saunders, and he was a champion at 168 and 160. We’re going for Plant [next].
“They [the fans] want to see him [Canelo] lose, and that’s why they want to see him fight heavier fighters [at 175] in other divisions [light heavyweight],” said Reynoso in no longer sounding like the jolly trainer he’d been during the build-up of the Saunders fight.
Reynoso has got things twisted in his head about why boxing fans want to see him take on some of the top light heavyweights.
They don’t have a sinister ulterior motive of seeing Canelo getting beaten, as Reynosos suspects.
On the contrary, the fans want to see Canelo fight quality guys that can give him a good fight, and they do not see that with him beating weak champions like Saunders, Rocky Fielding, and Callum Smith.
At least if Canelo goes up to 175, he’ll get four or five good fights against these talents:
- Artur Beterbiev
- Dimitry Bivol
- Joe Smith Jr
- Gilberto Ramirez
- Joshua Buatsi
Why did Canelo treat Demetrius Andrade so harshly?
It’s also hard to understand why Canelo treated Demetrius Andrade so harshly when he called him out at the post-fight presser.
Canelo should have seen this as a good thing because Andrade would be a HUGE upgrade over his last four opponents: Saunders, Avni Yildirim, Callum Smith, and Sergey Kovalev.
The only reason this writer can think of why Canelo dismissed Andrade from the room is because of fear because he likely sees him as a serious threat to him. Canelo was acting like a royal King with the way he booted Andrade from the room, and he did it in a way that stripped him of his dignity. He embarrassed him.
I’d have to say that there’s a lot of fear with Canelo, particularly with the way he looked so tired during the fight with Saunders. Canelo like he was physically incapable of throwing more than a handful of single shots last Saturday without needing a rest break.
I mean, his cardio resembled that of a fighter much older than his chronological age of 30, and that’s troubling. Watch the fight back and you’ll see a guy that looked like he needed oxygen at times.
Canelo has never great stamina during his career, but it looks like his cardio has taken a turn for the worse.
That fight did well, but only because of Canelo. The Mexican star is so popular at this point in his career that you could stick anyone in the ring with him and it’ll bring in great numbers.
But let’s be clear: U.S fans weren’t asking Canelo to fight Saunders last Saturday, and they would have never asked for that mismatch. They wanted to see Canelo face Charlo, Golovki, David Benavidez, Demetrius Andrade
Canelo only focused on Plant
“We have this short-term goal [to unify the 168-lb division], and if that fight [against Plant] doesn’t happen, hopefully, we can make history in other ways,” said Canelo.
“Right now that’s my goal and hopefully, we can continue to work towards that,” said Canelo when asked if he’d entertain the idea of fighting Golovkin if he’s successful in becoming the undisputed champion at 168 in September.
If the fight with Plant fails to materialize, Canelo will be doing the fan a big favor if they give them the trilogy match against Golovkin.
That’s one of the fights that fans actually want to see, not matches against Saunders, Plant, Yildirim, Smith, and the strange-looking sparring match against Kovalev.
Canelo said this week that he wants to give the fans the fights they want to see, but the truth is, he hasn’t been doing that since his clash with Golovkin in 2018. Since then, he’s been giving the fans fights that they haven’t been asking for.
No one wanted to see Canelo fight the over-the-hill Kovalev and Danny Jacobs. The U.S fans didn’t want to see Canelo fight Yildirim, Callum Smith, or Saunders. And they’re not asking for Canelo to fight Plant and they don’t care about his goal of unifying the division.
That’s Canelo’s vision thing, not the fans. Canelo might as well be collecting old bubblegum cards because the fans don’t care about his goal to unify the 168-lb division.
Alvarez sounding desperate
They want to see Canelo fight the best, and he’s not going that with his fights against Saunders, Yildirim, Jacobs, and Smith.
Canelo has his mind made up about wanting the fight with Plant next, and it’ll be interesting to see if it can get made. A huge mistake Canelo has made in telling the whole world that he only wants the Plant fight next is he’s made it clear that he’s needy.
You can bet that Plant’s manager Al Haymon at PBC will have noticed Canelo’s neediness, and he’ll be looking to get the deal in his favor. Putting that fight together is going to be a nightmare now for Alvarez, and it won’t be surprising if it doesn’t get made.